The outbreak of COVID-19 starting December 2019 caught the business world by whirl winds.

Within less than a week，the government in all provinces of China elevated the response to Level 1 and imposed immediate and resolute measures to cut off the routes of infection by freezing the movement of people.

As a result，railroads and highways were totally shut down or partially denied access to passengers and vehicles not on relief duties；borders were closed and travels were restricted；quarantine requirements were announced applying to people，vehicles，airplanes and ships；the Chinese New Year holiday was extended；people were asked to stay at home for extra weeks and returning to work required permission.

Business owners and companies had to grapple with many challenges all at once within a very short window：tracking the whereabout of employees and their health conditions，sourcing protective gears（i.e. masks）for employees，disinfecting the work place，monitoring the policy announcements of government at different levels and different geographies relevant to daily operations while reacting to them，navigating the sudden outage of feedstock supplies，disruption of product shipment and shortage of warehouse，making decisions on relief donations，answering calls of employees，suppliers and customers，ensuring IT capacity can host large portion of employees working remotely，and maintaining the financial strength of the company.

And bigger portion of those actions needed to be taken during holiday when management might be in different locations and even different time zones. While SMEs felt the chill of business continuity，large enterprises，especially those with national or even global footprints，did not trudge through easily as well.

It was 17 years ago when the last epidemic claimed its tolls. Many companies were not even existing at the time，not to mention the economy of China and its interconnectedness with the global supply chain were not as sophisticated.

Many business owners and companies will be reflecting，hopefully，whether they could have done better and more before and during the crisis.

A crisis should never be wasted！It is time for company to think about keeping a Pandemic Plan if you have not got one.